HUMSS - John Eicher

Organizing a Pandemic: Focal Points for Understanding European Interpretations of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

This research presentation highlights five specific areas of inquiry that I am using to organize my current book project, “The Sword Outside, The Plague Within,” which concerns the “Spanish” flu in the European context: (1) The Cultural Geography of Europe During the Pandemic (2) War, Revolution, and the Pandemic (3) Authority and Blame During the Pandemic (4) The Physical and Emotional Toll of the Pandemic (5) The Pandemic on the Eve of Medical Science’s “Golden Age.” These chapter ideas are guided by a few overarching themes that will show up throughout the entire manuscript. They include: (1) metaphors and narratives that gave the pandemic meaning (2) faith, skepticism, and disenchantment in medical science (3) urbanism and provincialism (4) the 1918 flu as a “forgotten” pandemic. My aim is to get feedback on my project’s organizational and thematic ideas at a critical juncture between research and writing.